How much can be read into the Los Angeles Lakers dominating their NBA playoff opener against the Denver Nuggets while Metta World Peace is serving his suspension?

Probably about as much as can be read into the Lakers dominating while Kobe Bryant is missing eight of his first 10 shots.

In other words ... these Nuggets, in this first-round best-of-seven series, might not be the best gauge of what the Lakers can and cannot do. Not that Denver is a bad team, or even a team that will eventually exit this series quickly and quietly—even though that’s exactly how it went out on Sunday at Staples Center, 103-88.

The Nuggets just looked overmatched at both ends, by everybody in the traditional Sunday home whites. Yes, it was significant that among the Lakers players taking control of things early was World Peace’s replacement in the starting lineup.

Devin Ebanks scored all 12 of his points in the first half, hit five of his six shots in various ways and circumstances, and didn’t look at all as if he’d spent his two-year NBA career as a bit player until World Peace threw his infamous elbow at the Thunder’s James Harden a week earlier.

On the other hand, the Lakers could have put 77-year-old Elgin Baylor in that spot, or Jack Nicholson, or simply played 5-on-4, and the Nuggets still wouldn’t have had any semblance of an answer for Andrew Bynum.

Bynum, of course, did tie the league single-game blocked-shot playoff record with 10 (since the stat became official in 1973-74) and had his first playoff triple-double—but it was one of those triple-doubles in which points were an afterthought. His first points did not come until seven-and-a-half minutes were left in the first half—and by then, he already had three blocks and eight rebounds, and the Lakers were shutting down the Nuggets’ last real run of the game.

The totals: 10 points, on just seven shots, plus 13 rebounds and the block total that put him in the record books next to Hakeem Olajuwon and Mark Eaton.

“Note to self,” Bynum told ABC immediately after the game, “the more I play D, the better we’ll be.”

And, as a reminder ... Bryant’s points were an afterthought, too; otherwise, why wouldn’t the Lakers have been in trouble after his 2-for-10 first half, instead of leading 50-40? That was 40 points, by the way, for the NBA’s highest-scoring regular-season team at more than 104 a game, surrendered by a team missing arguably its most important defensive player in World Peace.

Lots more about this Lakers win seemed out of place, unfamiliar and borderline quirky. Besides the scoring punch provided by Ebanks and Steve Blake (three first-half three-pointers) while Bryant took his time getting warmed up. Well, Pau Gasol wasn’t far from a triple-double himself: 13 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Jordan Hill managed a double-double, and not in garbage time, either—six of his 10 rebounds, half on the offensive glass, came in that first half, when the Lakers were wearing the Nuggets down and out. And Matt Barnes, back from the sprained ankle that sat him out of the regular-season finale, played a very active 29 minutes.

Speaking of garbage time? Bryant picked things up in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 and finishing with 31. The game was decided by then. Again, not a normal occurrence.

Ebanks and Hill, of course, had also emerged from out of nowhere in that April 22 Thunder game, helping spark the huge Lakers rally and double-overtime win, earning themselves bigger roles for this series.

Depending on whether the Lakers can make short work of the Nuggets—and it could just have been a case of a relatively young and playoff-inexperienced team caught in the headlights—the Lakers will have to get a repeat of this against, possibly, Oklahoma City in the next round.

World Peace still has five games left on his suspension. That could include the first two games in Oklahoma City.

With more collective efforts like in Game 1 against Denver, the Lakers would have no one to blame for his absence in Round 2 except themselves.